This semester was my first semester as an official IDS student and as such I took classes from several different departments, including some that aren’t even a part of my program. I had one last class to fulfill my general education requirements, and as luck would have it I ended up in one of my favorite courses that I have taken here at PSU. I spend the majority of my time studying science and law, but my last gen ed ended up being a political science class titled Terrorism and Counterterrorism. If you had asked me a month ago or even ten minutes ago if I liked this class, the answer might have something polarly different. This class has been difficult and a lot of hard work, but in retrospect I have learned so many interesting things that I can see now that it was definitely worth my time and energy. Because this course was a past/present gen ed, we learned about the history and evolution of terrorism and how it presents in modern day. We also talked a lot about the methodology of terrorism, the shift that 9/11 caused in our country and the reasons why terrorism is very difficult to define. However, the most important thing I learned in this class was a lesson in counterterrorism. While it goes without saying that terrorist acts should not be condoned, it is important to look past that for a minute in order to understand the circumstances that cause people join to terrorist organizations. I think that this an incredibly essentiel concept to understand and practice in stopping horrific acts, and this perspective will definitely be pertinent to my future career.
The second class that I learned a lot from was a psychology class titled Psychology and Law. This class happens to be interdisciplinary in itself, combining psychology based content with its implications in the legal field. I found it really helpful to see interdisciplinarity applied to a class. I had been combining them myself by taking criminal justice classes and psychology classes at the same time, but seeing it done in one class was really cool. We continually talked about concepts with three different approaches- psychology of the law, psychology in the law, and psychology and law. This class truly applied the concepts of interdisciplinarity and taught me how to think about problems with two different perspective at the same time. It also showed the importance of using multiple approaches at the same time in order to find the best solution. I think that more classes need to be taught in this way, as it is possible to apply several different disciplines to all problems and learning to think like this is crucial.
Both of these classes gave me a lot of new perspectives that I can apply to future classes as well as my career. Because my career is interdisciplinary in itself, learning how to think interdisciplinary as I did in psych and law will be crucial. Terrorism and Counterterrorism showed me how to think logically so that I can be better equipped to find solutions to issues that evoke emotion. With the knowledge gained from both these classes, I have become a better, more versatile student, and I know these will be helpful skills both in and out of school.
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